"Spending my year abroad in Japan really helped me grow as a person."

Spending my year abroad in Japan really helped me grow as a person. I’m much more comfortable expressing my own opinions and being open now. Previously I felt the need to hide how I felt and to obey those who I perceived as authority figures. I’ve learnt that it’s all about stepping outside of the confines of what you’re expected to do and speaking out when you don’t think something is right. I think we are living in a society with this sense that you have to follow the trend in life and do what everyone else does, just because that’s what society leads us to believe. These past few years have made me realise that questioning things and stepping out against it isn’t a bad thing – like Martin Luther King!

Since breaking down that barrier and having new experiences and memories, I’ve been telling myself to go for it and do everything to the best of my ability. I got a first for the year I was on my year abroad which was a nice way to end the year, and at that point I thought "hey, you can do it, you just have to put in the effort".